Purple VioletsMY REVIEW
You know some of you may ask or wonder, "Mike, why on Earth do you watch these straight to DVD movies? Why do you include them in your movie count for 2008, is it just an excuse to see as many movies as you can?" Here's my answer: to be a good film reviewer, to be an actual fan of movies, I personally have to be willing to sit down and watch any movie that comes out. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who enjoy these straight-to-dvd movies, so don't those people deserve a film review for a movie they are thinking of renting? Not everyone just watches mainstream movies, there are millions of people who watch many types of movies, so it is my duty as a good film reviewer to watch all sorts of movies to be please my readers. Just wanted to get that out. The number of movies I see in a year isn't even a factor anymore. I just love movies.
To answer the first half of that question, as to why I watch these types of movies, is because sometimes through all the cheaply made garbage of straight-to-dvd movies you will find a nice little gem like An American Crime or Purple Violets. This particular movie may come appear to be another sappy love story on it's glossy surface, but in my opinion is much more than that. This isn't a romantic comedy, or some cliched chick flick. Is it cliched? Yes, at times it very much is. But what seperates this movie from the rest is that it stays very real. The dialogue isn't too smart for it's own good, the characters are very much true to life humans beings. Purple Violets isn't a film about finding your true love, its a film about rediscovering friendship that you lost out on.
To me, that's inspiring. To know that when you have a good friend, through all the troubles in your lives, you will always have that person on your side. Even if you've gone your seperate ways for many years. If you can regain a friendship after 10 or 12 years of being apart, that's when you know you have someone special in your life. Purple Violets displays that very effectively, in my opinion. It also teaches the importance of forgivness. The character played by Debra Messing (TV's Will & Grace) learns how important forgivness is. Her ex-boyfriend in college played by Edward Burns (One Missed Call) may or may not have cheated on her in college, she found out, got furious and broke up with him. She said she would NEVER forgive him. By the end of this film, she does. Not because of cliched reasons, but because she swallowed her pride for once in her life and actually listened to his side of the story like an adult. We have so much pride as human beings, we want to be right about everything. It's in those moments where pride takes a backseat and you can really listen to your heart that we all cherish. Maybe I overthought the movie, but this is what I gathered from it.
As a film, it's pretty well made but at the same time pretty standard. It does very much have a indy film feel to it, which I liked because it wasn't all colorful and flashy like most romantic girl movies. Which is another thing, this didn't have that feel where only girls would love it, and guys would gag at the sight of the movie. I can see a lot of guys enjoying this film. Not your big, burly action movie guys, but ones who are maybe slightly in touch with their sensitive side. The performances were all great. I've always loved Messing on Will & Grace, and here she's pretty funny and proves she can do dramatic comedy. Edward Burns, who failed miserably at the beginning of the year with One Missed Call really does a 180 in this movie. He gives a very charasmatic performance, and I applaud him (He also wrote and directed the film). Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions) I haven't seen a whole lot of, but I liked her in this movie, she was kind of sweet and charming. Patrick Wilson (The Alamo, Hard Candy) also I've never really seen much of, was also pretty good.
No I'm not "falling" for chick flicks, but this isn't one of those movies anyway. I don't recommend it to anyone because not everyone would really like it. I just got a good message from the movie, where there might not even have been one. That's when I know a movie works for me.
Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating: *** out of *****
To view this films trailer, click this link: Purple Violets
*This is the 104th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.
*This film is now on DVD.
*Straight-to-DVD films do not qualify for my awards.
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